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Kitsune
Introduction “Ahahah!!! Your face! The pie hit you in your face!” A very annoying Kitsune The chosen people of the goddess of misfortune, thievery and cunning. The Kitsune are a small mischievous race blessed with a fierce intelligence and gift for magic but cursed with an incurable wanderlust and love of pranks that frequently gets them run out of town. Children tend to adore them and they make fantastic if flighty friends, albeit ones who tend to skip out quickly when confronted with a bill, leaving those they know to cover the cost. Appearance Kitsune resemble adorable little foxey humanoids with big bushy tails, huge eyes and disarming grins. Most have orange or red fur with dark and light patches but a few are jet black or snow white. Older more magical members occasionally have several tails which, when asked, they shrug and claim they stole from ‘Kitsune who obviously weren’t using them properly’. Age Kitsune have a long lifespan, with elders often living to be three or four hundred years old. Most proudly claim the goddess ‘stole’ extra life for her children from the other beast-kin, explaining their age in relation to the relatively short lives of most of their fellows. Clothing Most Kitsune dress in light, brightly coloured garments, the wilder and more extravagant the better. They love precious jewelry and metal, and usually adorn themselves with as much of it as they can lay their hands on, a habit that usually tips over into utterly gaudy. Notable Kingdoms None. The Kitsune are wanderers and gypsies, fond of travelling the highways and waterways of the East seeking entertainment, trade and anything that might fall their way. Some wander alone, others travel in great, brightly painted wagons or ‘borrow’ boats that they ride in for a time, painting them bright colours and filling them with knick-knacks that have caught their eyes as they travel. Once every decade or so the Kitsune tend to petition one of the Free Countries for the right to have a Folkmoot, or gathering of the Kitsune. For between a week and a month every Kitsune able to travel congregates on the Folkmoot which rapidly resembles a city of tents, stalls and wagons, brimming with entertainments, food and music. Humans, elves and other beast-kin are theoretically welcome to join in but warned cheerfully they’ll be robbed blind if they do so. Generally these get togethers are for tale swapping, sorting out old grudges and the like. Most human nations LOATHE folkmoots but have reluctantly realized that any attempt to prevent one happening leads to outbreaks of thievery, arson, blackmail and so on until permission is granted. As such, they’ve occurred frequently in almost every country with the notable exception of the Tumbledowns. The single attempt made to throw a moot in that forest occured in 650 and is still described by the kitsune as ‘the Folkmoot we don’t like to talk about’ and ‘the Folkmoot that wasn’t nearly as funny as we thought it was going to be’. Religion Theoretically the Kitsune worship their creator, Risurex. In practice, the small fox-race refuse point blank to obey anyone and largely regard their goddess as someone to be ignored or, if the worst comes to the worst, bribed or blackmailed. ‘Prayers' to their goddess take the form of statements: E.g. ‘Look... There’s an inviting bank vault. I have a set of well oiled lock-picks. I think we both know what’s about to happen here. Hey... you created me. You know how this works. So don’t mess this up for me!’ (followed by jabbing her fingers at her eyes then pointing them at a holy symbol) "I'm watching you..." Somewhat ironically the race has frequently pretended to be divine messengers, priests of their goddess and other religious figures. Humanity, they’ve noticed, seem to get very loose with their money when the gods are mentioned. Languages Trade Tongue, and Hand Cant, a series of subtle body gestures that allows them to communicate silently with each other when the occasion calls for secretive behaviour. Over the centuries many Kitsune have also taken to use Sign Cant, a simple set of sigils or symbols that they leave scratched into door frames, rocks, paving stones or other innocuous areas as warnings and hints to other Kitsune who might happen to stumble upon them. These signs include such gems as ‘Cheapskate’, ‘It’s like they want us to steal their stuff’ and the ever popular ‘CBEWW’ (short for ‘cute big eyes work well’). Common Names The Kitsunue call themselves whatever they want, with little regard as to the country their name comes from. They’re as likely to have Summerlander names such as Thom or Maggie as they are Ibrimite or Solumnian ones. They don’t have last names as the other races would understand them, instead they have ‘boasts’, effectively tall tales that they claim they’ve committed. Younger Kitsune normally call themselves ridiculously exaggerated things like Thom 'Who Sailed to the Moon and Ate a Mountain of Cheese'. Older, craftier members prefer to brag in a subtler way like Illya 'the Name Screamed by a Thousand and Five Foolish Homeowners who should really thank her for letting them know their security wasn’t very good' while some are just bold Alya 'Four Times Winner of Solumnia’s Most Energetic Lover and BallRoom Dance Enthusiast competition' (Note: This doesn't exist. Solumnians are renowned for many things. Fun is not one of them.) Common Professions Kitsune don’t exactly have professions. For one the word sounds far too much like work to a race built and bred to be averse to anything involving hard graft. For another a profession implies they’ve devoted themselves to a single thing and focused on it and it alone, an idea which instantly bores any Kitsune who hears it. Most have certain... ‘fields of interest’ however. Almost all kitsune are thieves of one sort or another but they apply their larceny in a wide set of directions. Some become illusionists, some steal semi-legally as merchants, still others try their hand at music, earning what passes for a living singing and dancing up and down the free countries. Personalities The Kitsune are small bundles of optimistic larceny rolled into a grinning package. To a kitsune the world is full of their stuff which people seem to be foolishly trying to keep from them. Doors, padlocks, gates, cells, laws... all of these are just minor inconveniences to them getting what they want. To friends and acquaintances one of the more terrifying things a kitsune can say is ‘Ooooh... that’s interesting! I bet it wants to come home with me!’, indicating a strange harebrained scheme is about to unfold and the law alerted. They truly love their friends and take great pleasure in entertainment and simply living life, but as a race they were created by a goddess of thievery and misfortune for her personal amusement. In some respects the Kitsunes' thought processes about the world can be defined as "Oh. A thing. Do I want it? Yes? Then can I steal it? No? Bored now, moving on." Unlike most thieves, the Kitsune believe they can steal ANYTHING. Not just objects but hearts, minds, even names. They might randomly announce that they’ve stolen a human’s dead grandfather and he’s THEIR grandfather now, so sorry. Ultimately they're a strange but oddly charming race who's logic only make sense to one another. History The smallest and craftiest of the beast-kin tribes, the Kitsune were the chosen of Risurex the Trickster goddess. Created almost on a whim, they spread across the world in small enthusiastic groups, usually living in the shadow of one of the bigger races. Like many of the others they were badly affected by the Decay, the time when the old gods lost contact with the world. They quickly devolved, keeping much of their cleverness but turning bestial and frequently insane. For centuries they lived as small natured barbaric tribes, squabbling over trinkets, raiding travellers and generally making a nuisance of themselves. During this time they were known as 'Jackals'. Today The return of the Old Gods has restored the race to their loud and larcenous glory. Now, with the Mirror rising once more, the Kitsune are beginning to act as unofficial scouts and a network of information across the Free Kingdoms. If the shadow stirs, no race is better poised to notice it and raise the alarm.